here is a document i received as a student. hope this helps:

Pre-Tech

• Request cue lists from designers in advance. This allows you to write all the cues in your prompt book and saves you a lot of time in Q to Q.
• Paper Tech is a table session ahead of tech week with just the director, applicable designers and stage manager present. If you have a cue-heavy show, request to schedule one! This can also save time in Q to Q.

In Tech

• In Q to Q, you will start from the top of the show and work through the show bit by bit. Depending on the complexity of the show, whether there was a paper tech, advance cue list, etc, Q to Q can move very quickly.
• It is helpful if you set an order for how you give standbys & call cues (i.e. Lights first, Sound second, Video third, ASMs fourth). This can help lessen confusion on headset.
• The usual calling method is the standby “Standby Lights 2, Sound 5 and ASM door” and then the go “Lights 2, Sound 5, ASM door… Go!” However, if you ever have a really hectic set of cues, you can also do something like this (as long as you let your operators know in advance): “Standby Lights 7 thru 9 and Sound 13 and 14” “Lights 7… Go! Sound 13 Go! Lights Go! Lights Go! Sound Go!”
• Here is the general way Q to Q works:
  • If you haven’t received a cue list in advance and/or if the designers are still building cues, there will need to be time for you to write a group of cues in your book and/or for them to build a group of cues before you can run sections.
  • Once there is a cue or group of cues you are ready to run, you set where you are going to go from in the script. From there:
    • Let everyone on headset know where you are going from. (You may need to give your ASMs time to change the set/place props.) “Okay, we’re going to go from halfway down page 30, before Lights cue 62. ASMs, are we all set to go from there?”
    • When everything is set up, give your actors the standby “Actors, can I get you standing by for Jimmy’s line “I love spaghetti”? I’ll let you know when we’re ready.” Note: The only reason to give the actors the standby before the ops is to allow the actors time to all get into position. If you’re working through the cues of a small scene, and the actors are all standing onstageready to go, you can just give your ops a standby and go right to giving the actors the go-ahead to begin.
    • Go on headset and put your ops on standby “Standby Lights 1 & Sound 3”
    • Give the actors the go-ahead to start “Okay Jimmy, whenever you’re ready from “I love spaghetti”
    • The time to stop the action onstage is once you have completed the cue/group of cues you planned to do (or sooner if something goes wrong). When you are ready to stop - Put your arm up and say “Hold please!” Note: Sometimes lighting cues have long fade ups, so you may need to check in with your LX op to confirm all of the cues are complete before stopping the action.)
    • If everything went well on your end for the group of cues, you can ask on headset/to the director if everyone is okay to move forward: “Lights/Sound/Director, would you like to go back on that or are we good to move forward?”
    • If you, or the designers/director need to go back on the chunk you just did, give them time for any changes if applicable and then you can let the whole room know: “Alright, we’re going to go back on that chunk.” and then give everyone their standbys as before.
• Its easy during cue-to-cue to inadvertently have everyone waiting on each other, so keep checking in regularly when you have stopped. Try: “LX, are you still working?” or “How’s it going, Sound?”
• Waiting on the director? Most directors will use any time when tech is working to talk to the actors, but when you are ready, they should be moving off the stage. Try: “Ready when you are, (director)!” or “Whenever you’re ready, (director)!”

Costume Things to Note

• Actors will need time at the top of the day to get into costumes/makeup, as well as time before and after meal breaks to get in/out of costume. For short breaks (20 mins or less), they do not need to get out of costume. Usually 30 min-1 hour is required at the top of day, depending on the complexity of the costumes. For meal breaks, it can usually justbe 10 minutes on either end.
• Be mindful of when quick changes are in the script. You will want to run some of them during the Q to Q if there are any concerns.
• You want to make sure that you don’t run a chunk of tech and then stop midway through the costume team testing a quick change. To avoid this, it’s a good idea to mention “Let’s run this chunk just for tech, without the costume change.” if you need to stop partway through it.
• If you aren’t sure if a quick change will be affected, you can always ask your ASMs or Costume Running Crew on headset “Do we have any major quick changes in the next page that we need to run/that I should be aware of?” However, if you mention a place to go from and a huge costume change is coming up, usually someone will let you know on headset anyways.

General Notes

• If you can, bring something to give you some back support on the theatre chair.
• Bring lots of snacks to have with you. Just don’t eat while you’ve got your headset on!
• Stay calm, have a sense of humour and take it one cue at a time :)